Proficient play of the game of soccer or other ball kicking or striking sports requires certain skills on the part of each player. These skills include the ability to properly and accurately kick or strike the ball, control an incoming perhaps spinning or bouncing ball, and the like. Many of these skills are taught at practice sessions where team members gather to perform various skill training "drills" or exercises administered by a team coach or trainer. In the game of soccer, such exercises may including kicking exercises, where players each in turn kick a ball towards a target; fielding exercises, where each player must quickly bring under control an incoming ball which may be bouncing, rolling, spinning, and so forth.
While these training exercises are certainly useful, there are several prominent drawbacks associated with them. Primarily, any kicked soccer ball, if it isn't trapped in the goal by a goal net or otherwise controlled, must be retrieved in order to be available for use again. This is one reason why multiple soccer balls must be purchased and used at practice sessions. Soccer balls are expensive, and if they are not retrieved immediately they may be lost or stolen.
Another drawback to such practice sessions is that many of the drills require more than one person, for example, kicking a ball back and forth between two or more players. An individual cannot perform many of these useful drills alone. Further, such exercises are not usually effective for building quick reflexes and endurance since they only require periodic, non-continuous action.
Clearly, then, there is a need for a soccer training device that can be used by an individual at any time, without requiring the presence of other team members. Such a device would allow more practice of kicking and controlling the ball in any given period of time than conventional team training methods, and would not require retrieving kicked soccer balls.
Further, such a needed device would be relatively easy to manufacture, use, and maintain, and allowing exercises not currently possible. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.